Ovarian cancer research
Our ovarian cancer research
Ovarian cancer is the fourth most common cancer in UK women, after breast, bowel and lung cancer. Each year there are nearly 7,000 new cases of ovarian cancer in the UK. The disease claims the lives of 4,000 UK women each year.
Cancer Research UK is the biggest supporter of ovarian cancer research in the UK. We fund research on all aspects of the disease, from investigating its molecular causes through to developing better ways to detect and treat it.
We also provide a range of information materials aimed at people affected by cancer. There is an extensive section on ovarian cancer on our CancerHelp UK website.
You can find out more about ovarian cancer in our Cancers At A Glance section.
Understanding the causes
Cancer is caused by damage to the genes that control how, when and where cells divide. This damage usually accumulates during a person’s lifetime. But some women have a much higher risk of developing the disease, because they have inherited faulty copies of certain genes from either of their parents.
We are funding Professor Doug Easton in Cambridge and Professor Paul Harkin in Belfast to study the ‘high-risk’ BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. These are known to play important roles in the development of ovarian and breast cancer in a small proportion of women with a particularly strong family history of these diseases. Working out exactly what the roles of these genes are in normal and cancer cells will help researchers to develop new ways of preventing and treating ovarian cancer in women most at risk.
Also in Cambridge, we are funding the Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry, a database of over 350 families with a strong history of ovarian cancer. Professor Bruce Ponder is leading a team using the data in this registry to look for any common genes and other risk factors for the disease.
Other Cancer Research UK-funded scientists Dr Simon Gayther in London and Dr Paul Pharaoh in Cambridge, are studying the subtle variations in our genes that slightly increase – or decrease – the risk of developing ovarian cancer. By comparing the DNA of thousands of women with and without ovarian cancer, they hope to identify ‘low-risk’ genes that are common in the general population and may be involved in the disease. They are also studying how these small but important variations may influence how quickly a cancer grows and how it will respond to treatment.
Elsewhere in London, we are funding Professor Fran Balkwill, who is studying the molecules involved in inflammation and investigating their role in ovarian cancer. Understanding this link may lead to new ways of treating the disease in the future.
Early detection
Many women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer after it has spread to other parts of the body and become more difficult to treat. There is currently no national screening programme to detect the disease early. Cancer Research UK has teamed up with the Medical Research Council and the Department of Health to fund the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS). Led by Professor Ian Jacobs, the trial is testing whether ultrasound scanning combined with a blood test for CA125 (a molecular marker for ovarian cancer) can save lives. More than 200,000 post-menopausal women nationwide are taking part. The results will help to reveal whether or not a national screening programme for ovarian cancer should be introduced.
Improving treatment
Cancer Research UK is funding a host of research aimed at developing new treatments for ovarian cancer, as well as improving existing treatments.
Dr Ruth Plummer in Newcastle is testing a potential new drug for ovarian and breast cancer. The drug is specifically designed to treat women who have faults in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. Faults in these genes affect the cell’s ability to repair DNA damage. The new drug capitalises on this weakness by blocking another method of DNA repair within cells. This combined effect means that damaged cells die, rather than developing into cancer cells.
Ovarian cancers need to develop their own blood supply if they are to grow and survive. Professor Robert Hawkins in Manchester is testing drugs designed to block new blood vessel growth and so starve cancers of essential oxygen and nutrients. We are also funding part of an upcoming international clinical trial, called ICON-6, that will test these drugs in combination with standard chemotherapy to see if this makes the treatment more effective.
Ovarian cancer cells frequently become resistant to the drugs used to treat them, making the disease difficult to treat. Scientists have discovered that a tagging process called ‘DNA methylation’ switches off many genes in cancer cells and makes the cells less likely to respond to chemotherapy drugs, like carboplatin. Professor Robert Brown is testing a new drug called decitabine, which can remove these methylation tags and should make the cancer cells more sensitive to chemotherapy. Their trial aims to find out if a combination of decitabine and carboplatin can improve survival in women whose ovarian cancer has come back.
Cancer Research UK-funded scientists in Cambridge are working hard to identify molecules that may contribute to resistance to treatment. Dr James Brenton is studying ovarian cancer samples taken from patients before and after chemotherapy. He and his team have found a molecule, TGFBI, which is present in much lower amounts in ovarian cancer cells that are resistant to the drug paclitaxel (Taxol®). In the future, measuring levels of TGFBI may be a good way of predicting who will benefit most from paclitaxel treatment.
In London, Dr Eric Aboagye is using sophisticated imaging techniques to track the effect of anti-cancer drugs on ovarian cancer cells grown in the laboratory. Imaging provides valuable information on cancer cell growth, blood flow, and drug uptake. He hopes that this will shed more light on the mechanisms behind drug resistance. Ultimately, imaging may form an important part of cancer treatment, enabling doctors to assess at an early stage whether or not a treatment is working, and allowing them to switch a patient on to an alternative drug if they are not responding.
Improving quality of life
Cancer Research UK is committed to improving the quality of life for people with cancer and to supporting them and their families. For example, women who have a high risk of ovarian and breast cancer due to a faulty BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene sometimes find it difficult to talk about this with their family. In Southampton, Dr Claire Foster and her team are developing ways to help these women discuss their cancer risk with relatives.
In addition, we have funded an ovarian cancer section on the DIPEx website. This is an online collection of in-depth interviews with patients about their experience of illness. Having a serious illness can be confusing and frightening and some patients benefit from sharing in other people’s experiences.
Progress and future developments
- Identifying new genes and molecules involved in ovarian cancer will allow doctors to develop better and more targeted ways of tackling the disease.
- Overcoming the problem of drug resistance will improve the survival of many women with the disease.
- Developing an effective screening technique that can detect ovarian cancer early could save many lives in the future.
